Judges 18:1-17 - Wrongly Seeking an Inheritance

Judges 18:1-17

The Danites Adopt Micah’s Idolatry

1 In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance for itself to dwell in; for until that day their inheritance among the tribes of Israel had not fallen to them. 2 So the children of Dan sent five men of their family from their territory, men of valor from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and search it. They said to them, “Go, search the land.” So they went to the mountains of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there. 3 While they were at the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite. They turned aside and said to him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What do you have here?”

4 He said to them, “Thus and so Micah did for me. He has hired me, and I have become his priest.”

5 So they said to him, “Please inquire of God, that we may know whether the journey on which we go will be prosperous.”

6 And the priest said to them, “Go in peace. The presence of the LORD be with you on your way.”

7 So the five men departed and went to Laish. They saw the people who were there, how they dwelt safely, in the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure. There were no rulers in the land who might put them to shame for anything. They were far from the Sidonians, and they had no ties with anyone.

8 Then the spies came back to their brethren at Zorah and Eshtaol, and their brethren said to them, “What is your report?”

9 So they said, “Arise, let us go up against them. For we have seen the land, and indeed it is very good. Would you do nothing? Do not hesitate to go, and enter to possess the land. 10 When you go, you will come to a secure people and a large land. For God has given it into your hands, a place where there is no lack of anything that is on the earth.”

11 And six hundred men of the family of the Danites went from there, from Zorah and Eshtaol, armed with weapons of war. 12 Then they went up and encamped in Kirjath Jearim in Judah. (Therefore they call that place Mahaneh Dan to this day. There it is, west of Kirjath Jearim.) 13 And they passed from there to the mountains of Ephraim, and came to the house of Micah.

14 Then the five men who had gone to spy out the country of Laish answered and said to their brethren, “Do you know that there are in these houses an ephod, household idols, a carved image, and a molded image? Now therefore, consider what you should do.” 15 So they turned aside there, and came to the house of the young Levite man—to the house of Micah—and greeted him. 16 The six hundred men armed with their weapons of war, who were of the children of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate. 17 Then the five men who had gone to spy out the land went up. Entering there, they took the carved image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molded image. The priest stood at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men who were armed with weapons of war.

With no king in Israel to guide and judges failing to keep order for long, the Danites were still seeking their inheritance in the promised land but looked in the wrong places without spiritual guidance.  They sent five men spy out the land, reminiscent of the time in the wild before wandering due to disbelief and fear of the land’s inhabitants, and they ended up at the the house of Micah in the mountains of Ephraim to rest.  They heard the voice of the young Levite whom they recognized and immediately asked the wandering priest what he was doing there and how he got there.  He told of how he left Bethlehem looking for a place since he was a priest in a land that had gone after idols and forsaken the LORD, ironic because he ended up in Micah’s house as a priest over idols.  Lack of spiritual guidance was rampant at that time in Israel and many had turned to idolatry and immorality.  He did still minister to the Danites, however, asking the LORD to give advice and a blessing for the wandering tribe’s spokesmen.  He said, “Go in peace. The presence of the LORD be with you on your way.”  These spied out the land, gave a good report (unlike in the wilderness time long before), and they sent an army of six hundred men.  They all stopped at Micah’s house on the way since it was nearby and the original five went in and stole the ephod, household idols, carved image, and molded image of Micah while the entire force stood at the door armed with weapons of war to ensure they would not meet any resistance.  These wrongly sought their inheritance by force and trusted in idols along with the LORD God, lacking spiritual leadership.  They would then go on to conquer but not prosper spiritually.  When we likewise fight the good fight of faith for the gospel’s sake, we are not to repeat this mistake of divided loyalty and worship, but wholeheartedly serve the Lord Christ in singleness of worship and devotion (Romans 2:22) to Him only as Lord without any idols (1 John 5:21) to of desire for what we see, feel, or live for distract us in (1 John 2:15, 16-17) in what we rightly seek in our inheritance already provided in heaven to come.  May we then seek godly men to lead us (Hebrews 13:7) in the truth of our journey of sanctification in the battle with proper armor (Ephesians 6:10-11), motive (Ephesians 4:1, Colossians 3:17), and grace (Acts 20:32, 2 Thessalonians 1:12) by His words that give us this eternal inheritance we seek. 

Judges 17:1-13 - Doing What Seems Right to You

Judges 17:1-13

Micah’s Idolatry

1 Now there was a man from the mountains of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. 

2 And he said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you, and on which you put a curse, even saying it in my ears—here is the silver with me; I took it.”

And his mother said, ”May you be blessed by the LORD, my son!” 3 So when he had returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, “I had wholly dedicated the silver from my hand to the LORD for my son, to make a carved image and a molded image; now therefore, I will return it to you.” 4 Thus he returned the silver to his mother. Then his mother took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to the silversmith, and he made it into a carved image and a molded image; and they were in the house of Micah.

5 The man Micah had a shrine, and made an ephod and household idols; and he consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. 6 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

7 Now there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah; he was a Levite, and was staying there. 8 The man departed from the city of Bethlehem in Judah to stay wherever he could find a place. Then he came to the mountains of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, as he journeyed. 9 And Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?”

So he said to him, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am on my way to find a place to stay.”

10 Micah said to him, “Dwell with me, and be a father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten shekels of silver per year, a suit of clothes, and your sustenance.” So the Levite went in. 11 Then the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man became like one of his sons to him. 12 So Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and lived in the house of Micah. 

13 Then Micah said, “Now I know that the LORD will be good to me, since I have a Levite as priest!”

The idolatry of self determination is as rampant today as in the time of Israel when they left God and did what was right in their own eyes.  They disregarded the word of the LORD and substituted it, modified it, and even replaced it with their own desires (1 John 2:15-16) instead of keeping it (1 John 2:17) to be God pleasers.  There are still some who substitute the Lord Jesus Christ with idols falsely identified as dead righteous people, modifying God’s word to make only revered people into saints when we are told clearly that all who are in ch are called to be saints (Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:2) because they are seen as righteous in the righteousness of Christ (Romans 4:5, 6:11, 10:3-4, 1 Corinthians 1:30, Philippians 3:9, 2 Corinthians 5:21) and not their own works to earn that title as is falsely claimed by those changing what God said to match what a man who usurped His authority claims over the God-breathed scriptures.  We who are made righteous by faith in God’s work in Christ are now imputed righteousness which is the definition of a saint, a holy one.  We are also all called priests to out God (Isaiah 61:1, 6, 1 Peter 2:5, Revelation 1:6, 5:10, 20:6) and do not require a man electing only some deemed worthy to be a priest in defiance of God’s word as Micah did in this passage.  We who have been made worthy in the holiness and righteousness of Jesus Christ are priests and we do not worship idols of the dead nor add to and take away from His word to follow the false gospel of men (Galatians 1:6-7, 8-9) contrary to the words breathed out (2 Timothy 3:16) by Gods to us.  Such false apostles build on a foundation of sand by claiming a nonexistent line of apostleship to replace the Rock of Christ (2 Corinthians 12:13, 14-15) as our one foundation and then preach a false gospel that cannot save us from the wrath of God as only Christ can by His word, work, and Spirit.  We do not hire priests to worship household idols as Micah did by his bad example, and look to no other mediator than (1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 9:15, 12:24) Jesus Christ to whom we directly approach (Hebrews 4:16, 10:21-22) for forgiveness of sin in His grace as our great High Priest and Mediator to the only Father (Matthew 6:9, 23:9, Ephesians 2:18) we have in heaven above.  Do not make the eternal mistake of doing what seem right in your own eyes as others do instead of what God tells us plainly in the scriptures.  Amen!

Judges 16:23-31 - Bringing Down the Enemy

Judges 16:23-31

Samson Dies with the Philistines

23 Now the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice. And they said:

“Our god has delivered into our hands
Samson our enemy!”

24 When the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said:

“Our god has delivered into our hands our enemy,
The destroyer of our land,
And the one who multiplied our dead.”

25 So it happened, when their hearts were merry, that they said, “Call for Samson, that he may perform for us.” So they called for Samson from the prison, and he performed for them. And they stationed him between the pillars. 26 Then Samson said to the lad who held him by the hand, “Let me feel the pillars which support the temple, so that I can lean on them.” 27 Now the temple was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there—about three thousand men and women on the roof watching while Samson performed.

28 Then Samson called to the LORD, saying, “O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!” 29 And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left. 30 Then Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.

31 And his brothers and all his father’s household came down and took him, and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. He had judged Israel twenty years.

The enemies of Israel gloated over betrayed Samson who had enacted the vengeance of God on their ungodly people of idolatry and immorality.  They had sapped his strength by Delilah’s deceit, put out his sight, and imprisoned the judge of Israel in hard labor.  Then they assembled to rejoice and gloat against him with a great sacrifice to Dagon their god to whom they made him perform for them like a circus act.  These leaders of the Philistines were there with a total of three thousand men on the roof to watch Samson entertain them as they claimed their non-existent god had delivered him to them and praised an idol for what they imagined was victory over their enemy who had defeated them so often before his betrayal and public belittling.  Samson stood between two main supporting pillars holding up the roof level of the massive temple where they jeered at him as he asked the true and living LORD God for payback from His enemies for his eyes and no doubt the betrayal that had taken his vow and eyesight with it.  God answered not just to avenge Samson, but in His larger purpose to bring down the pride and ungodly idolatry of the enemies of His people whom Samson had led to victory before.  This mighty man had regrown his Nazarite hair and the strength of that original vow to honor and serve God against all enemies, and with that renewed strength he pushed down the supporting columns of that idol temple arena and it collapsed on them all.  His act there as a bound blind man of God killed more of God’s enemies and his won than he had ever taken out in the whole of his life till that time.  His twenty years of rule came to a victorious end that day and he was buried by his family with honor for his life and work because he was born dedicated to God, and they recognized that he was chosen by the LORD for a greater purpose (Romans 8:28) seen in that victory out of imprisonment and ridicule.  God uses the weak to demonstrate His strength (2 Corinthians 12:9, 10, 13:4) for His glory and honor with victory (1 Corinthians 15:57) in Christ.  We are likewise used to bring down the enemy (2 Corinthians 10:4-5, Ephesians 6:12) by our testimony of the gospel for ultimate victory in Christ against all God’s enemies and ours in His (Revelation 6:10) vengeance on the ungodly who reject His Son and refuse to repent from their sin to trust in Him. 

Judges 16:1-22 - Strength of Commitment

Judges 16:1-22

Samson and Delilah

1 Now Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there, and went in to her. 2 When the Gazites were told, “Samson has come here!” they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. They were quiet all night, saying, “In the morning, when it is daylight, we will kill him.” 3 And Samson lay low till midnight; then he arose at midnight, took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two gateposts, pulled them up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.

4 Afterward it happened that he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. 5 And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and every one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”

6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and with what you may be bound to afflict you.”

7 And Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings, not yet dried, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”

8 So the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings, not yet dried, and she bound him with them. 9 Now men were lying in wait, staying with her in the room. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he broke the bowstrings as a strand of yarn breaks when it touches fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.

10 Then Delilah said to Samson, “Look, you have mocked me and told me lies. Now, please tell me what you may be bound with.”

11 So he said to her, “If they bind me securely with new ropes that have never been used, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”

12 Therefore Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And men were lying in wait, staying in the room. But he broke them off his arms like a thread.

13 Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me what you may be bound with.”

And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head into the web of the loom”—

14 So she wove it tightly with the batten of the loom, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep, and pulled out the batten and the web from the loom.

15 Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and have not told me where your great strength lies.” 16 And it came to pass, when she pestered him daily with her words and pressed him, so that his soul was vexed to death, 17 that he told her all his heart, and said to her, “No razor has ever come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”

18 When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up once more, for he has told me all his heart.” So the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hand. 19 Then she lulled him to sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him. 20 And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” So he awoke from his sleep, and said, “I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!” But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.

21 Then the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza. They bound him with bronze fetters, and he became a grinder in the prison. 22 However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven.

Samson found strength in his commitment to the LORD by his Nazirite vow from the day he was born to live a righteous life as signified by never cutting his hair.  It was not the hair that contained the strength, but the commitment to obey and follow God that enabled his own abilities and wisdom to lead as a judge and warrior of God’s people.  Unfortunately, as a man born in sin as we all are, this man of God took up with women that became his downfall in the end.  This account mentions the harlot that led to a trap to kill him but God intervened and woke Samson at midnight to pick up doors of the gate of the city with the two gateposts in that strength and carry them up on a hill in plain sight to bear witness to his enemies that God was greater than their plans.  Then he loved Delilah from the Valley of Sorek, a place in a wadi (valley) in Palestine.  She was tasked and well paid by the lords of the Philistines there to uncover the secret to his great strength that they might defeat him and stop the attacks on their people.  She asked him in intimate moments what the secret was and he told her several stories like binding him with seven fresh bowstrings, new ropes that have never been used, and even weaving his hair in a loom, so that his strength would depart and he would become as weak as an ordinary person.  Finally, she wore him down by saying he did not really love her if he refused to tell her his secret, pestering him daily with her words and pressing him, until that his soul was vexed to death and he finally toiled her about the Nazirite vow that held his strength in his obedience as reflected in never shaving off the hair of his head.  She then lulled him to sleep on her lap and had someone come to cut off his hair.  Then she woke him and taunted Samson whom she said she loved as she betrayed him for eleven hundred pieces of silver, far more than Judas took to betray our Lord.  The Philistines then blinded him, bound him, and put him to hard labor grinding grain in prison, much more strenuous than making small rocks out of big ones as we sometimes envision in prison.  What the jailers and Philistine leaders who did these things to him failed to take notice of was that the symbol of Samson’s strength was growing back as he labored in the dark there.  There is a slight pattern of Christ and Judas and the Pharisees under fear of losing their nation under the Romans here.  The religious leaders, like the Philistines, tried to destroy the one who was trying to set the people of God free because they imagined they would lose their nation (John 11:48), and they plotted with payment to Judas (Matthew 26:14, Luke 22:3) to isolate and capture Jesus the Nazarene (John 18:5) in the garden of Gethsemane (John 18:1, 2-3) and crucified Him as if that would stop the omnipotent one from being killed and rising from death to life again to finish the work (John 17:3-4, 19:28, 30) He came to do to set them and us (John 8:36) free from our enemy who reigns over us by the sin he deceived us by in Eden’s Garden.  The strength of the Lord was never taken away, for He willingly yielded (Philippians 2:5-6, 7-8) His strength to die for us that we might find eternal freedom of deliverance (1 Peter 2:24, 3:18) in His (Romans 14:9) work.  Is our strength of commitment to the gospel enough to live for Him, or do,we allow sin to blind us until we repent and set our eyes once again on (Romans 12:1-2) Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith as we keep living in the direction of obedience to Him and avoidance of sin? 

Judges 15:1-20 - Defeat in Heaps and Heaps

Judges 15:1-20

Samson Defeats the Philistines

1 After a while, in the time of wheat harvest, it happened that Samson visited his wife with a young goat. And he said, “Let me go in to my wife, into her room.” But her father would not permit him to go in.

2 Her father said, “I really thought that you thoroughly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister better than she? Please, take her instead.”

3 And Samson said to them, “This time I shall be blameless regarding the Philistines if I harm them!” 4 Then Samson went and caught three hundred foxes; and he took torches, turned the foxes tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails. 5 When he had set the torches on fire, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up both the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.

6 Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?”

And they answered, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion.” So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire.

7 Samson said to them, “Since you would do a thing like this, I will surely take revenge on you, and after that I will cease.” 8 So he attacked them hip and thigh with a great slaughter; then he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

9 Now the Philistines went up, encamped in Judah, and deployed themselves against Lehi. 10 And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?”

So they answered, “We have come up to arrest Samson, to do to him as he has done to us.”

11 Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? What is this you have done to us?”

And he said to them, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.”

12 But they said to him, “We have come down to arrest you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines.”

Then Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves.”

13 So they spoke to him, saying, “No, but we will tie you securely and deliver you into their hand; but we will surely not kill you.” And they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting against him. Then the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him; and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds broke loose from his hands. 15 He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and killed a thousand men with it. 16 Then Samson said:

“With the jawbone of a donkey,
Heaps upon heaps,
With the jawbone of a donkey
I have slain a thousand men!”

17 And so it was, when he had finished speaking, that he threw the jawbone from his hand, and called that place Ramath Lehi.

18 Then he became very thirsty; so he cried out to the LORD and said, “You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant; and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?” 19 So God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out, and he drank; and his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore he called its name En Hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day. 20 And he judged Israel twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

Samson avenged the loss of his wife at the hands of her father who gave her away and offered him a sister instead.  He enacted his vengeance by tying fox tails together with torches between them and set them loose through the grain fields and vineyards of the Philistines, even consuming their storehouses in his raging fires set upon his enemies.  The enraged Philistines then burned his wife and her father in their own burning rage of vengeance, which was answered by a final slaughter (“hip and thigh with a great slaughter”) of them by Samson for torching his wife and father-in-law.  His own countrymen arrested him out of fear of retaliation by the Philistines and tied him up, yet God gave him the power to easily break free and he grabbed a fresh jawbone of a donkey and killed a thousand men with it.  He waxed lyrical as he pronounced his victory saying, “Heaps upon heaps with the jawbone of a donkey
I have slain a thousand men!”  He then tossed the mocking weapon down on the ground and cried out for God’s mercy to satiate his thirst from all that effort.  He lived afterwards to judge Israel for twenty years among the occupying Philistine enemies before meeting an unseemly death yet with a final blow of vengeance on them to come.  He was used to deliver Israel by means that we have a difficult time understanding.  On one hand we know that veng is the LORD’s, not man’s; on the other hand we read that the LORD gave Samson the strength to deliver the people from oppression in what appeared to be his own vengeance but was ultimately God’s in heaps and heaps, up to hip and thigh, as he waded into victory over the enemies of God. 

Judges 14:1-20 - Riddles and Rewards

Judges 14:1-20

Samson’s Philistine Wife

1 Now Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. 2 So he went up and told his father and mother, saying, “I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines; now therefore, get her for me as a wife.”

3 Then his father and mother said to him, “Is there no woman among the daughters of your brethren, or among all my people, that you must go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?”

And Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she pleases me well.”

4 But his father and mother did not know that it was of the LORD—that He was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines. For at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

5 So Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother, and came to the vineyards of Timnah.

Now to his surprise, a young lion came roaring against him. 6 And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion apart as one would have torn apart a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.

7 Then he went down and talked with the woman; and she pleased Samson well. 8 After some time, when he returned to get her, he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion. And behold, a swarm of bees and honey were in the carcass of the lion. 9 He took some of it in his hands and went along, eating. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them, and they also ate. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of the lion.

10 So his father went down to the woman. And Samson gave a feast there, for young men used to do so. 11 And it happened, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him.

12 Then Samson said to them, “Let me pose a riddle to you. If you can correctly solve and explain it to me within the seven days of the feast, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing. 13 But if you cannot explain it to me, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing.”

And they said to him, “Pose your riddle, that we may hear it.”

14 So he said to them:
“Out of the eater came something to eat,
And out of the strong came something sweet.”
Now for three days they could not explain the riddle.

15 But it came to pass on the seventh day that they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband, that he may explain the riddle to us, or else we will burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us in order to take what is ours? Is that not so?”

16 Then Samson’s wife wept on him, and said, “You only hate me! You do not love me! You have posed a riddle to the sons of my people, but you have not explained it to me.”

And he said to her, “Look, I have not explained it to my father or my mother; so should I explain it to you?” 17 Now she had wept on him the seven days while their feast lasted. And it happened on the seventh day that he told her, because she pressed him so much. Then she explained the riddle to the sons of her people. 18 So the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down:

“What is sweeter than honey?
And what is stronger than a lion?”
And he said to them:
“If you had not plowed with my heifer,
You would not have solved my riddle!”

19 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of their men, took their apparel, and gave the changes of clothing to those who had explained the riddle. So his anger was aroused, and he went back up to his father’s house. 20 And Samson’s wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man.

When Samson wanted a wife from the daughters of the Philistines, his parents only saw the prohibition against marriage with a pagan, not understanding that the LORD had a bigger plan to use this occasion to defeat the Philistines and set His people free from their dominion over Israel.  On his way to Timnah with his father and mother to take her as wife, when the parents were out of sight, a lion appeared and the Spirit of God came mightily upon him, so that he tore the lion apart by hand in the strength of the LORD.  Samson later came back to take her as his wife and passed the lion carcass lying on the roadside.  He found honey that the nesting bees had made in the lion and took some home to his parents to share the goodness of God’s provision, unbeknownst to them where it came from.  I wonder if they even asked him.  When he arrived, there was a party feast where many gathered and there is where Samson set the riddle as a trap for his enemies.  The riddle would be answered and rewarded or unanswered and he would benefit from the thirty sets of clothes for their number of men.  The riddle said simply, “Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet.”  The only way they could figure it out was to have his new Philistine bride wheedle it out of him with sweet talk and tell them the story of the lion and the honey found in its carcass.  To be fair, the men threatened to burn down the house of his wife and her family’s as well if she did not find and tell them the answer to the riddle which was quite beyond them.  On the seventh and last day of the feast, he told her and she passed it on to them.  He honored the bet but revealed their treachery by saying, “If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle!”  He did this by God’s power in the might of the Spirit of the LORD as he went to Ashkelon and killed thirty of their men to give their clothing to those thirty who had explained the riddle by deceit.  To make matters even worse, they gave his wife to his best man at the wedding when he had gone back to his parent’s house in anger for their treachery.  This set the stage for further vengeance on the Philistines for their dominion over Israel.  Riddles and rewards took strange forms in God’s economy of events.  The greatest of these would be the ultimate Judge of all being crucified at the hands of those enemies having dominion over His people and rising from the grave as conquerer of them all to set us free from their bondage of sin!  The riddle revealed in the gospel was of the suffering Servant (Isaiah 53:4-5, 7-8, 11) whose reward is with Him (Isaiah 40:10-11) for our eternal freedom in Christ.  The mystery then is Christ in us (Ephesians 1:18, Colossians 1:26, 27) as our certain unfailing hope in glory! 

Judges 13:1-25 - Seeing God Face to Face by Grace

Judges 13:1-25

The Birth of Samson (cf. Numbers 6:1–21)

1 Again the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.

2 Now there was a certain man from Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had no children. 3 And the Angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, “Indeed now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. 4 Now therefore, please be careful not to drink wine or similar drink, and not to eat anything unclean. 5 For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.”

6 So the woman came and told her husband, saying, “A Man of God came to me, and His countenance was like the countenance of the Angel of God, very awesome; but I did not ask Him where He was from, and He did not tell me His name. 7 And He said to me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. Now drink no wine or similar drink, nor eat anything unclean, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’”

8 Then Manoah prayed to the LORD, and said, “O my Lord, please let the Man of God whom You sent come to us again and teach us what we shall do for the child who will be born.”

9 And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the Angel of God came to the woman again as she was sitting in the field; but Manoah her husband was not with her. 10 Then the woman ran in haste and told her husband, and said to him, “Look, the Man who came to me the other day has just now appeared to me!”

11 So Manoah arose and followed his wife. When he came to the Man, he said to Him, “Are You the Man who spoke to this woman?”

And He said, “I am.”

12 Manoah said, “Now let Your words come to pass! What will be the boy’s rule of life, and his work?”

13 So the Angel of the LORD said to Manoah, “Of all that I said to the woman let her be careful. 14 She may not eat anything that comes from the vine, nor may she drink wine or similar drink, nor eat anything unclean. All that I commanded her let her observe.”

15 Then Manoah said to the Angel of the LORD, “Please let us detain You, and we will prepare a young goat for You.”

16 And the Angel of the LORD said to Manoah, “Though you detain Me, I will not eat your food. But if you offer a burnt offering, you must offer it to the LORD.” (For Manoah did not know He was the Angel of the LORD.)

17 Then Manoah said to the Angel of the LORD, “What is Your name, that when Your words come to pass we may honor You?”

18 And the Angel of the LORD said to him, “Why do you ask My name, seeing it is wonderful?”

19 So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it upon the rock to the LORD. And He did a wondrous thing while Manoah and his wife looked on— 20 it happened as the flame went up toward heaven from the altar—the Angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar! When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground. 21 When the Angel of the LORD appeared no more to Manoah and his wife, then Manoah knew that He was the Angel of the LORD.

22 And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, because we have seen God!”

23 But his wife said to him, “If the LORD had desired to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things, nor would He have told us such things as these at this time.”

24 So the woman bore a son and called his name Samson; and the child grew, and the LORD blessed him. 25 And the Spirit of the LORD began to move upon him at Mahaneh Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.

After the people of the LORD again turned away from Him to their sin and were enslaved for a generation to the Philistines, God raised up another judge called Samson to deliver them yet again.  This child would be a Nazirite to God from birth then deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines when he was old enough.  God showed grace and mercy to those who turned away from Him because He called and loved them, otherwise they would d have been left to suffer for the con of their sins.  This is a pattern for the gospel because it is God’s unchanging character.  He is both our judge over and redeemer to deliver from our sin.  The birth of this Samson was announced by a man of God came to his barren mother, whose awesome countenance was like the the Angel of God as she described Him.  This Angel of the LORD then returned and she brought him to meet the Man for further instruction on how to raise this chosen one to be called Samson.  They wanted to make a burnt sacrificial offering to the Man, but were told offerings are only for the Lord God, a hidden way of pointing them to understand God Himself had appeared before them as Jesus similarly told the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:17 after He came in the flesh as the Son of Man to us.  When they asked His name, they were told it was wonderful, incomprehensible, and extraordinary and He asked why they asked the name to point them to who He was.  When they therefore offered the goat and grain on the altar, the Angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar to heaven and they knew then they had seen a theophany (or christophany) there.  The husband Manoah then exclaimed the truth revealed to them, “We shall surely die, because we have seen God!”  He knew nobody should be able to see God without perishing (Exodus 33:20), yet they were able to look upon Him as a Man in flesh (Genesis 32:30) and not die, just as those before us saw the divine Son of Man and God, Jesus Christ, and lived.  They did not see Him in His full glory (John 1:1-2, 14, 10:30, Philippians 2:8), but in a form that was closer to ours and so was able to be seen in part and they were able to live.  This is how we are able to see the Son of God like Saul did on the road to Damascus and still survive, as we are insulated from the divine presence in all His fullness that would completely overwhelm and end our earthly lives.  Samson’s parents loved to tell the tale and raised their only son well as promised to become wise and strong in God’s grace (Luke 2:52) for the LORD and His work to come.  Seeing God in Jesus the Christ (John 1:14, 1 John 1:1,3) come in the body of a Man like the Angel of the LORD, we also live to tell the tale of our deliverance from the Judgment to come (Acts 24:25, Revelation 14:7, John 5:24) by the Judge and Deliverer Himself.  This is seeing God face to face and living as a result by grace. 

Judges 12:1-15 - Judges and Judgments

Judges 12:1-15

Jephthah’s Conflict with Ephraim

1 Then the men of Ephraim gathered together, crossed over toward Zaphon, and said to Jephthah, “Why did you cross over to fight against the people of Ammon, and did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house down on you with fire!”

2 And Jephthah said to them, “My people and I were in a great struggle with the people of Ammon; and when I called you, you did not deliver me out of their hands. 3 So when I saw that you would not deliver me, I took my life in my hands and crossed over against the people of Ammon; and the LORD delivered them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me?” 4 Now Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. And the men of Gilead defeated Ephraim, because they said, “You Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites and among the Manassites.” 5 The Gileadites seized the fords of the Jordan before the Ephraimites arrived. And when any Ephraimite who escaped said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead would say to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,” 6 then they would say to him, “Then say, ‘Shibboleth’!” And he would say, “Sibboleth,” for he could not pronounce it right. Then they would take him and kill him at the fords of the Jordan. There fell at that time forty-two thousand Ephraimites.

7 And Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried among the cities of Gilead.

Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon

8 After him, Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel. 9 He had thirty sons. And he gave away thirty daughters in marriage, and brought in thirty daughters from elsewhere for his sons. He judged Israel seven years. 10 Then Ibzan died and was buried at Bethlehem.

11 After him, Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel. He judged Israel ten years. 12 And Elon the Zebulunite died and was buried at Aijalon in the country of Zebulun.

13 After him, Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel. 14 He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy young donkeys. He judged Israel eight years. 15 Then Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the mountains of the Amalekites.

When Jephthah the judge asked for help from Ephraim, they refused to assist and then later were enraged that Jephthah had not brought them along into battle against Ammon.  They had an issue with not getting credit for a victory it seems, and so threatened Jephthah and Israel for not inviting them along, even though they refused to help before.  This was ancient entitlement, a common symptom of pride and sin, it would appear.  Therefore, Israel attacked Ephraim before they could “burn your house down on you with fire!”  All the excuses of the Ephraimites could not enable them to overcome God’s people who were given wisdom to test the invaders with a word they were unable to pronounce as a flag to their identity and defeat.  They could only say, “Sibboleth” instead of the correct “Shibboleth.”  The ‘sh’ sound was beyond their ability to speak and it cost them dearly.  Speaking the same was not their game; they spoke contrarily and paid the price; the pronunciation was just a byproduct of their spiritual state.  This is a lesson for us to all speak the same thing (1 Corinthians 1:10, 2 Corinthians 13:11, 1 Peter 3:8, Ephesians 4:13, 15-16) as to the essential truths of the scriptures for true fellowship and to avoid such misunderstandings, conflict, and anger against one another.  As to this account of the judges, Jephthah ruled well for six years and was followed by Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon as judges after him for a total of twenty-five years.  This is an account of judges and judgments.